The poem
Should lanterns shine, the holy face, Caught in an octagon of unaccustomed light, Would wither up, an any boy of love Look twice before he fell from grace. The features in their private dark Are formed of flesh, but let the false day come And from her lips the faded pigments fall, The mummy cloths expose an ancient breast.
I have been told to reason by the heart, But heart, like head, leads helplessly; I have been told to reason by the pulse, And, when it quickens, alter the actions' pace Till field and roof lie level and the same So fast I move defying time, the quiet gentleman Whose beard wags in Egyptian wind.
I have heard may years of telling, And many years should see some change.
The ball I threw while playing in the park Has not yet reached the ground.
It is in the nature of poems to mean different things to different people but for me this is a sombre love poem showing how love blinds the lover to the reality of the intrinsic and inevitable defects in the beloved
and of the uselessness of methods, effective in ordinary life for the purpose of managing a love situation. After a lifetime of struggle, you may find yourself no further forward than when you began.
The lantern is seen as a method, usually unwelcome and spurned, of seeing the brutal reality of the beloved as a human being with all that that entails.
A magnificent, tight, dense and concise work of art.